Charleston Currents – S.C. Encyclopedia

S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Scientist Lewis R. Gibbes

S.C. Encyclopedia | Lewis (or Louis) Reeve Gibbes was born in Charleston on August 14, 1810, eldest of the eight children of Lewis Ladson Gibbes and his wife, Maria Henrietta Drayton. Gibbes attended grammar school in Charleston and Philadelphia, then prepared for college at the Pendleton Academy in the South Carolina upcountry, where he excelled in mathematics and the classics. A student of five languages, he showed an early interest in botany, astronomy, and physics. Gibbes entered South Carolina College soon after graduating first in his class from Pendleton Academy in 1827. For a time in 1830 he was the classics teacher and acting principal at Pendleton Academy. Later that year he enrolled in the Medical College of South Carolina, in Charleston.

by Andy Brack · 08/21/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

MYSTERY PHOTO: Where is this piece of art?

Surely you’ve seen statuary somewhere, but where? And what is it? Send your best guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the name of the town in which you live. Please also write “Mystery Photo” in the subject line.

by Charleston Currents · 08/14/2017 · 2 comments · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, authors of the play, “Porgy” (1927)

HISTORY: DuBose Heyward, author

S.C. Encyclopedia | Author DuBose Heyward was born in Charleston on Aug. 31, 1885, the son of Edwin Watkins Heyward and Jane Screven DuBose. Both parents were dispossessed aristocrats from the Upstate who had come to Charleston to better their opportunities. Joining the once powerful families in Charleston that had been reduced to genteel poverty by the Civil War, “Ned” Heyward eked out a living in a rice mill then died in a tragic industrial accident when DuBose was not quite 3.

by Charleston Currents · 08/14/2017 · 2 comments · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: South of the Border

S.C. Encyclopedia | Located just south of the North Carolina border near the South Carolina town of Hamer, South of the Border has long captured the attention of travelers on U.S. Highway 301 and Interstate 95. The beer distributor Alan Schafer (1915–2001) opened a one-room beer depot on the border in January 1950 to sell beer to dry Robeson County, North Carolina. Construction materials for the new business were delivered to “Schafer project: south of the border,” inspiring the name “South of the Border.”

by Charleston Currents · 08/07/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Swiss settler and publisher John Tobler

S.C. Encyclopedia | Promoter and publisher John Tobler, born in Appenzell, Switzerland, became that canton’s governor until he was removed from office in a power struggle. He then worked with other prominent members of his community to bring Swiss settlers to South Carolina.

by Charleston Currents · 07/31/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

Huntington working on a sculpture of a horse.

HISTORY: Anna Hyatt Huntington

S.C. Encyclopedia | Sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington was born in Cambridge, Mass., on March 10, 1876, the daughter of noted paleontologist, naturalist, and Harvard professor, Alpheus Hyatt. She planned to become a concert violinist before her sister encouraged her to try sculpture. As early as 1898 she began to exhibit her work, and by 1906 she had established a reputation as a fine sculptor of animals. She studied briefly under Henry Hudson Kitson of Boston and in the Art Students’ League in New York, and she received valuable criticism from Gustav Borglum. She also studied with Hermon Atkins MacNeil, George Grey Barnard, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Malvina Hoffman.

by Charleston Currents · 07/24/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

Reenactors model conquistador clothing. NPS photo.

HISTORY: Explorer Juan Pardo

S.C. Encyclopedia | Juan Pardo was born in Cuenca, Spain, in the first half of the sixteenth century. He traveled to Spanish Florida in the fleet of General Sancho de Archiniega in 1566 as the captain of one of the six military companies sent to reinforce the colony founded by Governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. Captain Pardo’s company was the only one from the Archiniega expedition posted to the Spanish town of Santa Elena, which was located on present-day Parris Island, South Carolina.

by Charleston Currents · 07/17/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Penn Center

S.C. Encyclopedia | Located on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, Penn Center, Inc., originated as the Penn Normal School. The school was established in 1862 on St. Helena by the northern missionaries Laura Towne and Ellen Murray. It was one of approximately thirty schools built on St. Helena as part of the Port Royal Experiment, an effort by northern missionaries to educate formerly enslaved Africans and prepare them for life after slavery.

by Charleston Currents · 07/10/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Thomas Lynch Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence

S.C. Encyclopedia | Born on August 5, 1749, in Prince George Winyah Parish, Thomas Lynch Jr. was the only son of Thomas Lynch, Sr. (ca. 1727–1776), and Elizabeth Allston. He attended the Indigo Society School in Georgetown and then traveled to England to pursue his education. There, he enrolled at Eton and then Caius College, Cambridge. Lynch also read law at the Middle Temple in London.

by Charleston Currents · 07/03/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

HISTORY: Old Exchange Building, Charleston

S.C. Encyclopedia | One of the grandest and most significant public buildings constructed in colonial America, the Exchange and Customs House at 122 East Bay was designed by William Rigby Naylor in 1766 and constructed by Peter and John Adam Horlbeck between 1767 and 1771 on the site of the earlier “Court of Guard” and Half-Moon Battery. The original design included a cellar, a first-floor open arcaded piazza, and a large second-floor assembly room. The roof was hipped with a parapet and lead-coated cupola.

by Charleston Currents · 06/26/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia